The replacement drive for the Micro-Dragon arrived today. Now begins the long process of setting it up. Ubuntu went on much easier this time. I used a USB drive rather then trying to install over the network. The server end was up in no time.

Que and a Stretched Mouse

More work on landings, and I'm getting better. My approaches are now pretty good--I am no longer dive-bombing the runway because of coming in too high. My glide slope and speeds are good. What I need to master is my hover and flare. I like to level-off too high, and then not flare enough. While this gets the plane on the ground, it's not as soft as it could be if I were to execute the procedure correctly. My flight instructor pretty much stays quiet during my landings, and then offers pointers for how I could improve.
Between touch-and-goes we took a break to review: stalls and engine failures were on the list. I feel pretty comfortable with the procedure for both of these, so we didn't spend too much time on it. So my instructor decided to add something new into the mix: steep turns.
None of my turns have exceeded 30 degrees of bank, but we can turn faster--much faster as I would quickly find out. We did a 45 degree turn. What is different is the addition of more engine power to maintain speed, and the use of the rudder. When I first did this I was surprised at how fast the airplane was turning--it was really moving. You are not suppose to watch the interments for this turn, so I had to look out the window and get comfortable with where the horizon was for a level turn--you don't want to loss altitude.
I didn't get a perfect landing, but I was getting close. More practice!

U-Rock Kids

Did a little work on the webserver hard drive. I started by putting the drive into the Blue-Dragon and seeing what I could see. The answer: not much. I was unable to mount the drive so even run the SMART tools. So I tried to do a basic sector-by-sector copy. That didn't work out so well either. The result: I can't get much off the dead drive.

Micro-Dragon Hard Drive Failure

I noticed the website was acting a little strange this morning. It didn't want to load the images on the page. So I decided I would give Apache a restart. But when I logged into the server, it failed to load much of anything. So, I decided to give the server a reboot. It never came back.
It is my guess that the hard drive has died. I'm not sure what kind of error it has, but it's bad. I don't have time to work on it, and I don't have a backup server setup. Do DrQue.net has to suffer through some down-time.

Humans vs Zombies

Today was an other round of Humans Vs. Zombies. I don't participate in competitive activities, but I had to come out for the event. So I dressed in my medieval outfit. My story: I was preparing to siege a castle be catapulting zombies over the wall. But my mage got drunk and messed up the re-animate spell. Instead of raising the dead, my mage sent me into the future to a location with undead. So my goal was to collect a bunch of zombies and take them back with me this. Time with my new mage Xix—my old mage didn't survive having his head placed on a pike.

We consume a loaf of bread made of 5 cups in about 20 minutes--fresh bread just doesn't last. So I decided trying an increase in the loaf size. Pictured is an 11 cup loaf which I hope will last a little longer. This is right at the edge of what my mixer can knead. Picture by Steve.